973»7L63  Draper,    A.  S. 

GD79»  The    Illinois    life   and    the 

EAST  CAGE  presidency   of  Abraham 

Li  ncol n 


LINCOLN  ROOM 

UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 
LIBRARY 


MEMORIAL 

the  Class  of  1901 


founded  by 

HARLAN  HOYT  HORNER 

and 
HENRIETTA  CALHOUN  HORNER 


The  Illinois  Life  and  the  Presidency  of 
Abraham  Lincoln. 


AN  ADDRESS 


The  University  of  Illinois, 

Lincoln's  Birthday,  1896, 


President  Draper* 


President  Draper's  Address. 


IN  1860  my  way  to 
school  led  me,  with  un- 
^  varying  regularity,  by 
the  stately  mansion 
which  had  been  the  res- 
idence of  one  of  New 
York's  greatest  govern- 
ors and  most  gifted 
sons,  William  Henry 
Seward.  The  associa- 
tion of  this  house  with 
one  of  the  greatest 
names  in  the  history  of 
the  state  gave  it  un- 
usual interest  to  all,  and,  in  connection  with  events 
\vhich  were  then  transpiring,  led  it  to  exert  a  con- 
siderable influence  upon  my  childish  thought.  Its 
former  occupant  was  not  yet  a  memory.  He  was 
still  a  great  force  in  the  public  life  of  the  people. 
He  was  representing  his  great  state  in  the  senate 
of  the  nation,  with  a  wealth  of  scholarship  and  lit- 
erary culture,  as  well  as  of  high-minded  thought 
and  courage,  which  reflected  lasting  honor  upon 
himself  and  his  people  alike.  He  was  a  common 
and  an  attractive  figure  about  the  capital  of  the 
state,  and  the  halo  of  glory  which  surrounded  him, 
the  principles  for  which  he  stood,  the  fluency  of 
his  speech  and  the  grace  of  his  style  readily  awoke 
the  responsive  echoes  in  the  chambers  of  my  awak- 
ening soul. 

When  the  state  presented  him  to  the  convention 
of  his  party  as  its  candidate  for  the  presidency,  and 
when  all  the  people  about  me  never  doubted  the 


—3— 

acceptance  of  so  promising-  a  leader,  there  is  no 
wonder  that  I  was  his  young-  and  enthusiastic  par- 
tisan. And  when  this  finished  statesman  was  set 
aside  for  a  ''rail  splitter"  from  the  far-away  wilds 
of  Illinois,  and  New  York  people  felt  so  badly,  and 
Mr.  Thurlow  Weed  declared  that  New  York  had 
become  the  servant  rather  than  the  master  of  the 
new  party,  it  was  not  strange  that  I  had  some  little 
share  in  the  common  disappointment.  The  names 
adopted  by  that  convention  were  new  and  long1  and 
strange  to  me,  and  I  wrote  "Abraham  Lincoln'' 
and  ''Hannibal  Hamlin"  on  apiece  of  paper  and  put 
it  in  my  pocket  so  that  if  occasion  should  require  I 
could  tell  what  they  were.  But  that  paper  soon 
became  useless,  for  in  a  day  the  nominee  of  that 
convention  became  a  leading  figure  in  the^world. 
And  each  passing  day  only  strengthened  the  con- 
viction that  what  was  then  done  was  fortunate  and 
was  well  done;  indeed,  that  it  was  directed  by  that 
Providence  which  is  in  and  about  all  of  the  affairs 
of  men. 

It  is  my  purpose  to-day  to  inquire  what  were  the 
qualities,  and  what  had  produced  the  qualities,  in 
Abraham  Lincoln,  the  child  of  poverty,  the  hardy 
son  of  toil,  the  itinerant  country  lawyer,  the  poli- 
tician of  limited  experience  in  the  affairs  of  the  na- 
tion, which  made  his  administration  of  the  presi- 
dential office  during  the  critical  period  of  the  Civil 
War  so  much  more  beneficent  than  we  can  possibly 
believe  would  have  resulted  from  the  election  of 
the  rich,  gifted,  able,  no  less  upright,  and  far  more 
experienced  senator  from  the  Empire  state,  that 
all  coming  generations  will  be  thankful  that  that 
national  political  convention  acted  as  it  did. 

STUDY   OF   THE   CHARACTER   OF    LINCOLN. 

Recent  years  have  witnessed  an  intensive  study 


— 4— 

of  all  of  the  details  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  life.  No  word 
of  his  has  been  too  small,  no  act  too  trivial,  no  as- 
sociation too  remote  to  enlist  the  quick  attention 
of  an  interested  people.  The  child  of  pioneers,  he 
was  a  pioneer  himself.  The  story  of  his  childhood 
is  one  of  the  most  stirring-  in  all  the  stirring-  rec- 
ord of  American  pioneering,  and  one  of  the  most 
pathetic  in  all  the  history  of  the  world.  It  is  so 
familiar  that  there  is  no  need  to  dwell  upon  it  now. 
The  humble  Kentucky  log-  cabin  without  floor  or 
window  or  chimney,  in  which  he  first  saw  the  lig-ht 
eighty-seven  years  ago  to-day,  is  as  safe  from  pro- 
fanation by  the  instinctive  feelings  of  all  true  citi- 
zens of  the  Republic  as  was  the  ark  of  the  covenant 
by  the  written  law  of  the  Jews.  The  book  he  read 
in  lieu  of  schooling,  the  desk  upon  which  he  wrote 
a  letter,  are  relics  worthy  the  care  of  a  whole  peo- 
ple. The  house  in  which  he  lived  receives  the 
jealous  care  of  the  state  to  \vhich  his  renown 
brings  its  greatest  honor,  and  the  tomb  which 
holds  his  ashes  is  a  mecca  to  which  all  lovers  of 
free  government,  from  all  nations  and  in  all 
generations,  will  turn  with  continually  increasing 
devotion. 

From  this  reverential  interest  in  the  material 
things  by  which  he  was  encompassed  the  study 
has  passed  on  with  still  larger  devotion  to  the 
thoughtful  contemplation  of  the  secret  springs  of 
his  inner  life.  His  intellectual  qualities  are  being 
analyzed  only  to  deepen  wonder  and  widen  admi- 
ration. His  innermost  religious  feelings  are  being 
reviewed  in  the  light  of  every  expression  having 
the  remotest  bearing  upon  them.  His  relations  to 
his  mother  who  died  in  his  ninth  year,  to  his  al- 
ways kindly  foster  mother,  to  his  wife  and  chil- 
dren, and  to  the  men  who  were  the  associates  of  his 


public  life,  are  all  under  the  searchlight  of  public 
investigation.  Even  his  first  love  has  lifted  the 
plain  name  of  "Ann  Rutledge"  to  a  fame  so  lasting 
that  all  patriotic  Americans  are  tempted  to  jour- 
ney far  that  they  may  drop  a  sympathetic  tear  over 
the  fair  head  at  her  humble  and  untimely  grave. 
His  liking  for  the  anonymous  hymn,  i-Oh!  Why 
Should  the  Spirit  of  Mortal  be  Proud?"  has  immor- 
talized it. 

Out  of  all  this  thoughtful  study  there  has  grown 
a  literature,  both  in  prose  and  verse,  which  forms 
no  smal  1  part  of  the  general  literature  of  the  na- 
tion, or  indeed  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race.  Out  of 
this  prolific  literature  I  quickly  draw  a  few  sug- 
gestions in  the  hope  that  they  may  have  some  spe- 
cial interest  to  this  vast  assemblage  of  the  people  of 
the  University,  supplemented  so  proudly  by  the 
residents  of  the  thrifty  adjacent  cities,  the  teachers 
and  pupils  of  the  public  schools,  and  the  veteran 
soldiers  of  the  Grand  Army  of  the  Union.  Illinois- 
ans  all,  proud  of  our  great  state  and  cherishing  all 
that  has  ennobled  her  life,  we  shall  hope  to  find 
something  in  the  career  of  Abraham  Lincoln  in  Ill- 
inois which  specially  qualified  him  for  his  remark- 
able record  in  the  presidency  and  for  his  world-re- 
nowned work. 

1'I.ACK    OF    BIRTH    AND    SYMPATHY    WITH     THE     SOUTH. 

None  of  us  can  throw  off  the  influences  which 
spring  from  the  place  of  our  nativity  or  the  asso- 
ciations of  our  first  years.  Grounded  as  Mr.  Lin- 
coln was  in  the  principles  of  free  government, 
strong  as  he  was  in  his  love  for  the  humanities,  ab- 
horrent as  he  was  of  the  slave  system,  it  was  fortu- 
nate that  he  was  born  south  of  the  Ohio  and  in  a 
slave  state,  and  that  his  earlier  life  was  spent  in 


southern  Illinois  among  a  people  who  were  strongly 
sympathetic  with  the  people  of  the  south  by  reas- 
on of  kindred  and  associations.  The  ties  of  birth, 
of  kindred,  of  years  of  familiar  association  with  a 
chivalric  people,  and  of  marriage,  all  combined  to 
give  the  man  whose  official  acts  were  to  gather  the 
greatest  army  that  a  constitutional  state  ever 
marshalled  to  subdue  insurrection,  a  deep  and 
abiding  sympathy  with  the  people  of  the  south. 

This  it  was  that  led  him  when  the  crucial  mo- 
ment had  come  which  required  him  to  speak  from 
his  great  office  to  an  agitated  people,  already  torn 
into  fragments,  to  take  his  inaugural  address  upon 
his  knee,  even  when  surrounded  by  multitudes  of 
great  men  and  the  excitement  of  a  great  occasion, 
even  after  the  bugles  had  sounded  the  onward 
march  of  the  inaugural  procession,  and  add  the  im- 
portant part  of  these  memorable  words: 

"In  your  hands,  my  dissatisfied  fellow-country- 
men, and  not  in  mine,  is  the  momentous  issue  of 
civil  war.  The  government  will  not  assail  you." 

•'You  can  have  no  conflict  without  being  your- 
selves the  aggressors.  You  have  no  oath  registered 
in  heaven  to  destroy  the  government:  while  I  shall 
have  the  most  solemn  one  to  preserve,  protect  and 
defend  it." 

"I  am  loth  to  close.  We  are  not  enemies,  but 
friends.  We  must  not  be  enemies.  Though  pas- 
sion may  have  strained,  it  must  not  break  our 
bonds  of  affection.'' 

"The  mystic  cord  of  memory,  stretching  from 
every  battle-field  and  patriot  grave  to  every  living 
heart  and  hearthstone,  all  over  this  broad  land, 
will  yet  swell  the  chorus  of  the  Union,  when  again 
touched,  as  surely  as  they  will  be.  by  the  better 
angels  of  our  nature.'' 


It  was  this  knowledge  of  the  southern  people 
vhich  enabled  him  to  take  the  course,  and  take  it 
>romptly,  which  prevented  his  native  state  with 
ler  great  associates  upon  the  border  line  from  fol- 
owing  the  six  sisters  with  which  they  were 
ilosely  allied  and  which  had  already  assumed  to  " 
*o  out  of  the  Union,  and  thus  to  win  at  the  outset 
L  memorable  triumph  in  administration  without 
vhich  we  cannot  but  fear  that  the  struggle  for  the 
mion  must  have  broken  in  disaster.  It  was  this 
sympathy  with  the  south  which  led  him  to  tinge 
us  most  drastic  official  acts  with  expressions  of 
'eelings  so  kindly  to  the  south  that  no  man  could 
se  embittered  unless  already  crazed  by  passion, 
ind  which  gives  his  memory  a  recognized  place  in 
;he  warm  feelings  of  the  great  South-land  to-day. 

SYMPATHY  WITH  THE    PEOPLE. 

Abraham  Lincoln  was  the  child  of  the  common 
people.  The  training  for  his  great  work  was  in 
;he  school  of  poverty  and  of  toil.  His  rough 
jioneer  life  opened  to  him  the  secret  springs  of 
luman  action.  It  wras  not  money,  but  brawn 
which  could  put  down  the  Rebellion.  The  people 
)f  the  north  had  been  separated  by  political  dis- 
jussion  and  hate.  They  were  to  be  united  in  feel- 
.ng  before  an  army  could  be  marshalled.  His 
sagacious  words,  born  of  his  experiences  in  Illi- 
nois, did  the  work.  Could  the  great  New  York 
senator  have  said  from  his  standpoint  what  I  heard 
Mr.  Lincoln  say  to  the  New  York  legislature,  and 
with  like  effect?  Hear  him: 

'•I  deem  it  just  to  you,  to  myself  and  to  all.  that 
[  should  see  everything;  that  I  should  hear  every- 
thing: that  I  should  have  every  light  that  can  be 
brought  within  my  reach,  in  order  that  when  I  do 
S()  speak.  I  shall  have  enjoyed  every  opportunity 


to  take  correct  and  true  grounds;  and  for  this 
reason  I  don't  propose  to  speak,  at  this  time,  of 
the  policy  of  the  government.  Hut  when  the  time 
comes  I  shall  speak,  as  well  as  I  am  able,  for  the 
good  of  the  present  and  future  of  this  country — for 
the  good  both  of  the  north  and  the  south  of  this 
country — for  the  good  of  the  one  and  the  other. 
and  of  all  sections  of  the  country." 

This  was  humility  which  was  not  assumed. 
While  it  was  a  seeking  for  light  and  for  guidance 
which  was  known  to  be  sincere,  because  of  the 
history  of  the  man,  it  was  strongly  suggestive  of  a 
high  purpose,  worthy  of  the  great  place  to  which 
he  was  going  and  of  the  momentous  acts  which 
soon  plunged  the  whole  country  into  the  awful 
vortex  of  war. 

Mr.  Lincoln  was  not  an  aristocrat,  as  the  term  is 
commonly  understood,  and  he  could  not  be.  There 
was  no  artificiality  about  him.  He  never  pre- 
tended to  be  other  than  he  was;  indeed  he  was 
careful  not  to  appear  to  be  other  than  he  was.  He 
carried  his  Illinois  ways  and  his  Illinois  ideas  with 
him  to  the  presidency.  When  he  spoke  he  drew 
freely  upon  his  Illinois  experiences.  Some  who 
lived  in  a  kind  of  artificial  society  thought  at  the 
time  that  he  was  coarse.  He  was  not  coarse.  He 
was  simply  natural,  unaffected  and  honest.  Of 
course  under  the  influences  of  his  great  position 
and  his  new  surroundings,  his  life  underwent  a 
change.  As  he  would  say.  he  "bought  a  new  coat.'' 
He  avoided  being  odd.  He  conformed  to  the 
reasonable  conventionalities  of  the  place,  while  he 
ripened  and  grew  in  strength,  but  he  never  dis- 
sembled. There  was  nothing  of  which  he  was  so 
proud  as  his  right  to  a  place  in  the  crowd,  upon 
the  ground  floor  of  the  great  human  family:  and 


nothing1  which  afforded  him  so  much  pleasure  as  to 
recall  the  events  of  his  youth  and  recount  the 
stories  of  his  young-  manhood  in  Illinois.  And 
there  was  a  freshness  and  a  reality  and  a  trans- 
parency about  it.  which  lent  a  charm  to  his  person 
and  gave  great  force  to  his  administration. 

1 1  is  feeling  for  the  lowly  and  oppressed  was  in- 
tense, almost  consuming.  He  could  treat  a  stal- 
wart man  with  indifferent  familiarity,  but  the  cry 
of  a  child  touched  his  heart  and  the  pleadings  of  ;i 
woman  unnerved  him. 

He  commenced  the  growth  of  his  whiskers  upon 
receiving  a  childish  letter  from  a  little  girl,  and 
when  his  inaugural  train  stopped  for  a  moment  at 
Westfield  he  asked  for  her  and  then  got  down  into 
the  crowd  that  he  might  kiss  her. 

He  always  spoke  familiarly  to  the  officer  who 
stood  at  his  door  and  seemed  to  relish  a  chat  with 
the  private  soldier  upon  his  beat  more  than  with 
the  commanding  general  at  his  headquarters. 

It  was  this  sympathy  for  the  lowly  and  the  weak 
which  led  him  to  put  death  sentences  from  the 
army  into  his  desk  without  his  approval  until 
the  military  authorities  procured  a  change  in 
the  law  in  order  to  get  around  him.  When 
the  Judge- Advocate  General  laid  the  tir.st  one  be- 
fore him  he  said:  "I  will  keep  this  a  few  days  un- 
til I  read  the  testimony.''  When  the  second  came 
he  said:  "I  must  put  this  by,  until  I  can  settle  in 
my  mind  whether  this  soldier  can  best  serve  the 
country  dead  or  alive. "  To  the  third  he  said:  "The 
General  commanding  the  brigade  is  to  be  here  in  a 
few  days  and  I  will  speak  with  him  about  it." 
When  the  next  came  and  he  was  told  that  it  was  an 
extreme  case,  that  the  man  was  worthless  and 
without  mother,  wife  or  children,  and  that  the  dis- 


—  10— 

cipline  of  the  army  demanded  summary  action.  In- 
said  to  General  Holt:  "Well,  after  all,  Judge,  I 
think  1  must  put  this  with  my  leg  case*. "  "Mr. 
President,  what  do  you  mean  by  'leg  cases'?"  was 
asked.  "Why,  those  papers  in  that  pigeon  hole  all 
refer  to  cases  of  'cowardice  in  the  face  of  the  ene- 
my,' but  I  call  them  'leg  cases'.  If  Almighty  <;<><! 
gives  a  man  a  cowardly  pair  of  legs  how  can  he 
help  their  running  away  with  him?" 

After  all.  this  consuming  sympathy  with  the  un- 
fortunate was  the  quality  in  his  nature  which  fitted 
him  for  the  leadership  at  the  crucial  time  and  gave 
him  the  inspiration  for  the  Emancipation  Procla- 
mation. And  this  quality  grew  out  of  the  experi- 
ence of  his  own  life. 

HIS    FAIRNESS    AND   KEEN    INSIGHT. 

Mr.  Lincoln  was  probably  not  what  would  have 
been  called  a  great  lawyer  at  the  time  of  his  nomina- 
tion. He  certainly  was  not  a  case  lawyer.  In  his 
practice  he  did  not  cite,  and  doubtless  he  did  not 
know,  the  precedents  in  the  reports.  But  he  had 
read  the  law  from  its  original  sources.  He  assimi- 
lated what  he  read.  He  knew  the  secret  springs 
of  the  common  law.  He  drank  in  its  spirit.  Or,  more 
accurately,  it  found  rich  ground  for  fruitage  in  the 
great  soul  which  the  Almighty  had  given  him.  He 
was  judicial,  fair,  and  just  by  nature.  The  circum- 
stances of  his  Illinois  law  practice  made  his  mind 
keen  and  incisive,  and  the  experience  of  his  politi- 
cal contests  prepared  him  for  leading  and  manag- 
ing men.  and  fortified  him  for  his  quickly  coming 
share  in  great  events. 

When  the  time  came  he  grasped  those  events 
with  a  firm  hand  and  a  comprehensive  understand- 
ing. It  is  impossible  now  to  even  enumerate  the 


—11— 

circumstances  which  lead  up  to  the  Civil  War. 
There  was  negro  slavery  in  the  south  and  the  con- 
stitution had  recognized  it.  Hut  the  great  ordi- 
nance for  the  organization  of  the  Northwest  Terri- 
tory, which  in  importance  rivalled  the  constitution 
itself,  dedicated  tu  freedom  all  that  part  of  the 
public  domain  north  of  the  Ohio.  Other  territory 
acquired  later  beyond  the  Mississippi  was  left  to 
uncertainty  and  controversy.  The  Missouri  Com- 
promise was  only  a  temporary  expedient.  For 
forty  years  the  slave  power  had  sought  to  extend 
its  system  into  the  parts  of  this  territory  wheiv 
southern  men  had  found  their  new  homes.  The 
convention  which  nominated  Mr.  Lincoln  had  not 
declared  against  the  slave  system  within  its  old 
limitations,  but  had  taken  decided  ground  against 
its  extension  into  the  newly  formed  territories  of 
the  west. 

His  election,  even  on  this  platform,  embittered 
the  slave  power  on  the  one  hand,  and,  on  the  other, 
stimulated  while  it  did  not  satisfy  th  >  righteous 
and  continually  grooving  public  sentiment  in  the 
north  which  demanded  the  overthrow  of  the  slave 
system  altogether.  When  he  took  the  oath  of  office 
he  stood  between  these  extreme  and  contending 
forces.  Six  states  had  already  assumed  to  go  out 
of  the  Union  and  set  up  a  confederated  republic  of 
their  own.  With  his  hand  on  the  Book,  he  took 
his  position  with  exactness.  It  was  a  position 
which  pleased  none  of  the  extremists.  He  said  he 
derived  all  his  powers  from  the  constitution,  the 
laws,  and  the  people,  and  that  it  was  not  within 
his  commission  to  interfere  with  the  slave  system 
in  the  slave  states.  It  was  his  business  to  save  the 
l'n ion  and  enforce  its  laws.  Whatever  it  was  well 
to  do  t:>  save  the  Union,  not  prohibited  "by  the  con- 

MMMRI 


stitution,  he  would  do:  what  it  was  well  tolcji\o 
undone  in  order  to  save  the  Union  he  would  for- 
bear. He  was  commanded  to  enforce  the  laws  of 
the  United  States  by  the  fundamental  law,  and  he 
would  do  it  upon  every  rod  of  her  territory  with 
such  force  as  might  be  necessary,  so  long1  as  he 
could  command  it. 

This  was  a  simple  platform.  Its  strength  was  in 
its  simplicity,  in  its  clearness,  in  its  freedom  from 
demoralizing-  and  confusing-  allusions.  It  was 
worthy  of  a  great  man  and  proved  equal  to  a  great 
occasion.  Upon  it  all  patriots  could  stand,  and 
upon  it  they  did  stand.  Before  it  party  lines  dis- 
appeared for  the  time  being  and  under  it  the  great- 
est army  was  gathered  that  ever  was  marshalled 
by  a  constitutional  state  for  the  suppression  of  in- 
surrection. Under  this  platform  and  through  this 
army  slavery  was  finally  abolished  and  the  slave 
power  overthrown,  and  all  else  was  done  that  was 
so  well  done. 

This  is  not  the  day.  although  the  temptation  is 
great,  to  tell  the  fascinating  *story  of  that  heroic 
army.  It  went  through  all  the  horrors  of  an  awful 
war  to  restore  the  Union  and  enforce  the  laws. 
After  a  contest,  which  in  length  of  time  and  in  un- 
numbered horrors  had  not  been  anticipated,  it  met 
with  complete  success.  While  succeeding  genera- 
tions will  look  upon  each  faithful  member  of  that 
grand  army  as  a  hero,  coming  generations  will 
value  more  and  more  deeply  the  great  masterspirit 
which  was  behind  it,  which  called  it  into  being, 
gave  it  form  and  organization,  framed  the  simple 
creed  which  made  it  a  cosmopolitan  army  of  think- 
ing patriots,  and  nerved  its  arm  for  the  most 
heroic  deeds  in  history. 

That  great  mind  never  departed  from    its  simple 


—13— 

creed.  Tlie  waves  of  selfishness,  of  supercilious 
self-importance,  of  political  hate,  of  bigotry,  all 
heat  against  him,  but  the  rock  stood  the  storm. 

The  times  were  unusual.  The  whole  country 
was  a  military  camp.  The  financial  system  was 
overthrown.  Credit  was  low  and  the  government 
began  printing  its  own  money.  The  needs  of  the 
army  and  navy  were  enormous,  and  the  business 
transactions  were  such  as  we  had  never  imagined 
before.  Greed  was  rampant.  The  writ  of  hnbcns 
rorpitswas  suspended  and  laws  were  shaped  to  suit 
unusual  circumstances.  The  resulting  commotion 
threw  all  manner  of  minds  into  activity.  The  good 
and  the  bad.  the  wise  and  the  cranks,  all  came  to 
the  surface,  and  all  concentrated  and  intensified  at 
the  presidential  office,  but  the  President  adhered 
to  his  simple  creed  and  went  steadily  on  his  way. 

He  treated  all  patiently,  but  frankly.  He  had 
an  intuitive  sense  of  proper  perspective;  he  knew 
the  true  importance  of  things.  When  a  company 
of  temperance  people  came  to  ask  that  General 
Grant  be  removed  because  he  drank  too  much,  he 
inquired  what  kind  of  liquor  he  drank,  and  said  he 
wanted  to  know  so  he  could  send  some  to  other 
generals  that  they  might  win  such  victories  as 
Grant  was  winning.  "Temperance  is  a  good 
thing."  he  said,  "but  we  are  saving  the  Union 
now." 

The  intrepid  confederate  army  made  no  more 
trouble  in  front  than  the  sincere  but  impatient 
abolition  leaders  did  behind  him.  To  Horace  Gree- 
ley,  the  greatest  of  American  editors,  his  party  as- 
sociate and  the  stinging  thorn  in  his  flesh,  he 
wrote: 

"I  have  just  read  yours  of  the  19th  instant,  ad- 
dressed to  myself  through  the  New  York  Tribune." 


—14— 

••If  there  be  in  it  any  statements  or  assumptions 
of  fact  which  I  may  know  to  be  erroneous.  I  do  not 
now  and  here  controvert  them." 

"If  there  be  any  inferences  which  I  may  believe 
to  be  falsely  drawn,  I  do  not  now  and  here  argue 
against  them." 

"If  there  be  perceptible  in  it  an  impatient  and 
dictatorial  tone,  I  waive  it  in  deference  to  an  old 
friend  whose  heart  I  have  always  supposed  to  In- 
right. 

"If  there  be  those  who  would  not  save  the  Union 
unless  they  could  at  the  same  time  save  slavery. 
I  do  not  agree  with  them." 

"If  there  be  thoss  who  would  not  save  the  union 
unless  they  could  at  the  same  time  destroy  slavery. 
I  do  not  agree  with  them." 

"My  paramount  object  is  to  save  the  Union.  ami 
•n  at  either  to  save  or  destroy  slavery  " 

"If  I  could  save  the  Union  without  fi-eeing  any 
slave,  I  would  do  it  —  if  I  could  save  it  by  freeing 
all  the  slaves,  I  would  do  it  —  and  if  I  could  do  it 
by  freeing  some  and  leaving  others  alone.  I  would 
also  do  that." 

"What  1  do  about  slavery  and  the  colored  race,  I 
do  because  I  believe  it  helps  to  save  the  Union,  and 
what  I  forbear.  I  forbear  because  I  do  not  believe 
it  would  help  to  save  the  Union." 

"I  shall  do  less  whenever  I  shall  believe  that 
what  I  am  doing  hurts  the  cause,  and  I  shall  do 
more  whenever  I  believe  doing  more  will  help  the 
cause.'' 

"I  shall  try  to  correct  errors  when  shown  to  be 
errors,  and  I  shall  adopt  new  view ^  so  fast  as  they 
shall  appear  to  be  true  views." 

"I  have  here  stated  my  purpose  according  to  my 
views  of  official  duty,  and  I  intend  no  modification 


of  my   oft-expressed   personal    wish   that    all  men 
everywhere  could  be  free.'' 

From  the  hour  of  that  touching1  farewell  speech 
to  his  neighbors  in  the  Springfield  depot,  down  to 
the  fatal  night  in  Ford's  theatre,  his  life  was  con- 
secrated to  the  restoration  of  a  dissevered  country. 
Everything  else  was  subordinate.  It  is  a  su- 
preme satisfaction  to  know  that  his  life's  ambition 
was  consummated  before  he  went  to  his  everlasting 
reward 

MR.  I,INCOI,X    AS    A    SPEAKER. 

Mr.  Lincoln  was  not  an  orator  in  the  sense  that 
his  great  competitor  in  the  nominating  convention 
was  an  orator.  He  was  awkward  in  person.  He 
was  a  reader  of  literature;  but  he  seldom  iised  its 
flowers  to  ornament  his  addresses.  Here,  as  in 
everything  else,  he  was  plain  and  unassuming.  He 
attempted  none  of  the  graces  of  the  traditional  ora- 
tor. \Ve  have  been  led  to  admire  the  fluency  of 
speech  of  other  candidates  for,  or  occupants  of,  the 
presidential  office  since  then,  but  surely  he  ranks 
below  none  of  them.  In  purity  of  style  he  sur- 
passed them  all.  And  he  made  many  speeches.  In 
his  inaugural  journey  alone  he  made  thirty-six 
more  or  less  substantial  addresses  upon  great  ques- 
tions, and  always  with  safety  and  marked  ac- 
ceptability. He,  himself,  was  hardly  in  his  ad- 
dresses. He  was  eminently  successful  as  a  speech 
maker,  but  his  success  was  not  in  his  appearance, 
or  his  manners,  but  in  the  substance  of  what  he 
said.  His  cause  was  always  held  up  before  his 
auditors;  his  logic  was  irresistible;  and  his  style, 
acquired  before  the  debating  clubs  and  before  the 
farmer  juries  and  the  plain  people  who  constituted 
the  political  assemblages  of  Illinois,  at  that  time, 
was  so  simple,  pure,  and  penetrating,  that  it  has 


— ir,— 

become  distinctive  in  the    literatiire  of  the  English 
language. 

KVKRY    INCH    TIIK    I'RKSIDKNT. 

With  all  his  modesty  he  was  every  inch  the 
president.  He  took  his  positions  promptly  and  with 
certainty.  He  never  hesitated  to  exercise  any  of 
the  prerogatives  of  his  great  office.  In  an  unusual 
crisis  he  even  strained  those  prerogatives  and  put 
them  to  the  accomplishment  of  unusual  ends,  do- 
ing into  an  official  circle  of  the  nation's  greatest 
statesmen,  and  without  experience  or  familiarity 
with  administrative  functions  himself,  he  did  his 
great  work  with  his  own  hand  and  stopped  at 
nothing  which  would  save  the  Union. 

His  messages  to  congress  were  penned  with  the 
confident  air  of  a  veteran.  His  proclamations  rang 
like  great  signal  guns  from  ocean  to  ocean.  He 
took  the  most  heroic  action  with  the  utmost  quiet- 
ness of  manner.  He  directed  his  cabinet  officers 
with  a  gentle,  but  an  unhesitating  hand.  Within 
ninety  days  of  his  inauguration  he  took  .Mr.  Sew- 
ard's  memorable  dispatch  to  Minister  Adams,  upon 
our  relations  with  Great  Hritain.  made  erasures, 
changes,  and  additions,  until  the  original  now 
on  file  in  the  State  department  looks  worse  than  a 
theme  after  being  slashed  by  the  professor  of  rhet- 
oric in  our  University:  and  all  the  world  quickly 
says  that  every  change  was  an  improvement.  His 
laconic  direction  to  the  great,  iron-handed  Secre- 
tary of  War  was  the  simple  indorsement  upon  the 
papers:  "Do  this,"  with  only  the  initials.  "A.  L." 
beneath.  He  was  never  uninformed  about  the 
army.  He  made  the  plan  of  organization,  he 
selected  the  leaders,  he  advised  movements  with  a 
military  insight  possessed  by  few  and  worthy  <>f 


—  17 — 
the  greatest  professional  military   men  of  the  age. 

He  was  alert  and  his  acts  were  timely.  He  cen- 
sured delay  unsparingly.  He  thanked  the  army  for 
victory  very  quickly.  He  promoted  the  deserving. 
Again  and  again  he  called  upon  the  nation  to  hum- 
ble itself  in  prayer  before  the  God  of  nations. 

Upon  the  second  night  of  the  decisive  battle  of 
Gettysburg  he  wrote  an  order  as  Commander-in- 
Chief  to  General  Meade.  directing  him  to  intercept 
Lee's  retreat  and  give  him  another  battle.  He 
sent  it  by  a  special  mesenger,  with  a  private  note 
saying  that  this  seemed  to  him  to  be  the  thing  to 
do.  but  that  he  would  leave  it  to  the  ultimate  de- 
cision of  the  military  commander  on  the  ground. 
The  general  order  was  not  a  matter  of  record,  and 
need  not  be.  If  Meade  would  undertake  the  move- 
ment, and  it  was  successful,  he  need  say  nothing 
about  it.  If  it  failed,  he  could  publish  the  order 
immediately.  In  other  words:  "Go  ahead.  Make 
an  heroic  attempt  to  annihilate  that  army  in  its 
disheartened  state  and  before  it  can  recross  the 
river.  If  the  attempt  succeeds,  you  take  the  glory 
of  it;  and  if  it  fails  I  will  take  the  responsibility  of 
it." 

The  people  of  the  state  of  New  York  will  never 
think  less  of  Governor  Seward  than  they  always 
did.  but  rather  they  will  hold  his  memory  in 
higher  and  still  higher  esteem  with  the  passing 
years.  But  the  people  of  New  York  will  always 
look  with  entire  satisfaction  upon  the  original  draft 
of  the  Emancipation  Proclamation  in  their  state 
library,  in  the  long,  clear  hand  of  the  great  Eman- 
cipator himself,  with  only  a  formal  beginning  and 
ending  in  the  handwriting  of  the  accomplished 
Secretary  of  State.  The  greatest  act  of  his  life, 
perhaps  the  greatest  act  of  any  life,  was  deter- 


—18— 

mined  by  the   intelligence   and   performed   by   the 
hand  of  this  plain  Illinois  lawj^er  in  his  closet. 
HIS  WIT. 

In  speaking  of  the  character  of  Abraham  Lincoln 
it  is  not  permissible  to  omit  a  special  reference  to 
his  wit,  for  it  was  proverbial  and  a  part  of  the 
man.  In  quick  retort,  in  apt  illustration,  in  ready 
humor,  he  had  few  peers.  This  accomplishment  is 
commonly  dangerous  to  public  men,  but  his  wit 
was  so  pure,  so  spontaneous,  so  apt,  and  his  ser- 
vices were  so  transcendent,  that  he  has  not  suffered 
in  consequence  of  it.  Indeed  it  was  fortunate  that 
he  had  it,  for  it  came  to  his  aid  at  critical  junc- 
tures. It  helped  relieve  the  hours  of  his  despon- 
dency, and  they  were  many.  It  enforced  his  views. 
It  saved  him  when  at  the  breaking  point. 

On  the  5th  of  June,  1863,  he  wrote  General 
Hooker:  "In  a  word,  I  would  not  take  any  risk 
of  being  entangled  upon  the  river  like  an  ox 
jumped  half  over  a  fence  and  liable  to  be  torn  by 
the  dogs  front  and  rear,  without  a  fair  chance  to 
gore  one  way  or  kick  the  other."  And.  in  a  day, 
the  eighteen  thousand  dead  and  wounded  Union 
soldiers  at  Chancellorsville.  immediately  bore 
dreadful  testimony  to  the  military  foresight  of  the 
great  war  president. 

To  a  committee  of  congressmen  who  came  to  pro- 
test against  the  removal  of  McClellan,  he  said 
frankly  that  he  thought  the  general  had  had  op- 
portunity: that  he  complained  too  much,  and  that 
he  made  no  headway.  They  replied  that  he  was 
certainly  a  great  engineer.  "Yes,  but  he  must  have 
run  a  stationary  engine,"  was  the  answer. 

Going  down  to  review  the  army,  he  rode  upon  an 
army  wagon  and  found  the  driver  swearing  at  his 
mules.  He  said:  "My  friend,  you  must  be  an 


Episcopalian?"  "No,  sir;  what  makes  you  think 
so?"  asked  the  man.  "Why,  you  swear  the  way 
Governor  Seward  does  and  he  is  an  Episcopalian, 
but  he  has  mules  to  drive  sometimes  and  it  may  be 
in  the  business."  was  the  answer. 

His  grasp  upon  affairs  was  sufficiently  strong  to 
let  him  use  his  wit  with  impunity.  He  used  it  for 
a  laudable  purpose  and  it  brought  him  rest  from 
his  great  cares. 

It  would  be  a  profitable  occupation  for  some  stu- 
dent to  collect  the  innumerable,  published,  homely 
references  and  witty  illustrations  used  while  he 
was  president,  and  drawn  from  his  life  in  Illinois. 
Indeed  it  is  not  fanciful  to  say  that  this  conspicu- 
ous trait  in  his  character,  this  keenness  of  wit,  this 
love  of  story  telling,  this  quickness  of  retort,  was 
largely  developed  by  his  experiences  in  the  hotels 
and  in  the  court  rooms  when  he  was  an  itinerant 
lawyer  upon  the  8th  circuit  of  this  state. 

SAGACIOUS  POLITICS. 

He  had  freely  declared  his  indifference  to  renom- 
ination  prior  to  the  end  of  his  first  term.  He  had 
questioned  whether  the  name  of  some  other  candi- 
date would  not  go  farther  to  save  the  Union.  He 
had  avowed  his  entire  readiness  to  stand  aside  for 
any  other  person  whose  name  would  unite  the 
north  or  advance  the  armies  a  single  rod  upon  the 
field.  Before  the  end  of  his  first  term  political  dif- 
ferences had  become  intense  behind  him.  It  was 
a  great  trouble  to  him.  In  1863  he  had  thoughts  of 
an  effort  to  blot  out  all  parties  and  unite  all  patri- 
ots in  one  organization,  with  one  of  his  old  oppo- 
nents as  the  standard  bearer.  He  had  sent  Thur- 
low  Weed  to  Governor  Seymour  with  a  request  that 
the  governor  should  pursue  an  aggressive  war  pol- 
icy in  New  York  and  become  the  candidate  of  all 


—20— 

unionists  for  the  presidency  at  the  next  election. 
Failing  there,  he  had  caused  the  same  proposition 
to  be  sent  to  General  McClellan.  Hut  politics  is  a 
stumbling-  block  for  much  that  is  good  and  it  stood 
in  the  way  of  any  of  these  agreements. 

When  the  time  came,  and  he  was  unanimously 
and  enthusiastically  renominated,  he  thought,  and 
very  properly  thought,  that  it  was  best  to  under- 
take to  be  reflected.  The  task  at  first  seemed  for- 
midable indeed,  but  his  experiences  in  securing 
delegates  and  in  leading  campaigns  in  Illinois 
again  came  to  his  substantial  help. 

When  he  was  menaced  by  a  split  from  his  own 
party,  he  asked  his  friend  to  resign  his  position  in 
the  cabinet  and  used  the  place  as  a  consideration 
with  which  to  negotiate  the  independent  ticket  out 
of  the  field. 

Mr.  Depew  says  that  when  he  wras  secretary  of 
state  in  New  York,  it  was  his  duty  to  locate  every 
New  York  regiment  in  order  to  gather  in  the  sol- 
dier vote.  Going  to  Washington,  and  applying  to 
Mr.  Stanton  for  the  information,  he  was  gruffly  re- 
fused on  the  ground  that  it  was  not  safe  to  give 
such  information  to  politicians,  as  it  would  get 
into  the  newspapers  and  so  to  the  enemy.  As  he 
was  leaving  in  disgust  he  met  Mr.  Wash  burn  at  the 
door  of  the  war  department  and  told  him  he  would 
go  home  and  publish  in  the  newspapers  that  the 
soldier  vote  could  not  be  taken  because  of  the  un- 
reasonableness of  the  Secretary  of  War.  Mr.  Wash- 
burn  said: 

"Have  you  seen  the  President?  Why.  Mr.  Lincoln 
is  as  great  a  politician  as  he  is  a  president.  If  there 
was  no  other  way  to  get  them  he  would  start  out 
with  a  carpet  bag  and  gather  up  those  votes  him- 
self. He  will  find  a  way." 


—21— 

In  another  half  hour  Mr.  Stanton  had  been  reor- 
ganized and  the  difficulty  removed. 

When  two  votes  were  yet  needed  to  pass  the 
amendment  to  the  constitution  abolishing  slavery, 
in  congress,  so  that  it  could  be  sent  to  the  states, 
he  sent  for  two  members  and  said:  "Those  two 
votes  must  be  procured."  When  asked  how,  he  re- 
plied: "This  amendment  affects  millions  now  in 
bondage  and  many  millions  more  yet  unborn.  The 
matter  is  too  large  to  be  fooled  with.  I  am  presi- 
dent of  the  United  States,  with  great  powers,  and 
I  expect  you  to  procure  those  two  votes."  The 
significance  of  the  remark  was  understood  and  the 
votes  were  procured,  and  the  acts  of  the  President 
and  the  army  were  soon  approved  and  established 
by  constitutional  action. 

Mr.  Lincoln  was  a  politician,  but  his  political 
operations  were  commendable  for  they  had  a  laud- 
able end  in  view. 

RKMOIOU8    FEELINGS. 

Mr.  Lincoln's  religious  views  have  been  sur- 
rounded with  mystery.  In  early  life  he  was  cer- 
certainly  a  doubter,  and  he  expressed  his  doubts 
freely,  but  it  is  also  certain  that  in  maturer  years 
he  acquired  considerable  religious  feeling,  and  all 
the  facts  go  to  show  that  it  deepened  with  his  ex- 
panding greatness.  Indeed  it  promoted  his  great- 
ness. He  was  not  hypocritical.  He  never  paraded. 
Ho  cared  nothing  for  denominational  differ- 
ences and  little  for  creeds.  An  analysis  of  his  re- 
ligious feelings  would  doubtless  uncover  points 
with  which  many  Christians  would  not  agree.  But 
he  came  to  be  an  undoubted  believer  in  God.  in  im- 
mortality, in  the  larger  liberty  which  makes  men 


free.     As  early  as  18(>0  he    wrote   to   Newton  Bate- 
man: 

"I  know  that  there  is  a  God  and  that  He  hates 
injustice  and  slavery.  I  see  the  storm  coming  and 
1  know  that  His  hand  is  in  it.  If  He  has  a  place 
and  a  work  for  me.  and  I  think  He  has,  I  believe 
I  am  ready.  I  am  nothing,  but  truth  is  every- 
thing. I  know  that  I  am  right,  because  I  know 
that  liberty  is  right,  for  Christ  teaches  it  and 
Christ  is  God." 

In  November,  1862.  he  enjoined  the  orderly  ob- 
servance of  the  Sabbath  upon  the  army  and  the 
navy  as  ''a  becoming  deference  to  the  best  senti- 
ment of  a  Christian  people,  and  a  due  regard  to  the 
Divine  Will,"  and  added:  "The  discipline  and 
character  of  the  national  forces  should  not  suffer 
nor  the  cause  they  defend  be  imperiled  by  the 
profanation  of  the  day  or  the  name  of  the  Most 
High." 

There  has  been  much  said  in  relation  to  the  pe- 
culiarities of  Mr.  Lincoln's  religious  opinions,  but 
the  peculiarities  are  of  small  account,  and  the  facts 
are  too  numerous  to  leave  any  room  for  doubt  that 
he  was  a  man  of  deep  and  continually  deepening 
religious  culture.  He  had  a  constitutional  tend- 
ency towards  sacred  things,  an  intense  emotional 
nature,  an  innate  regard  for  the  truth,  an  inborn 
reverence  for  the  right,  an  abiding  sense  of  his  de- 
pendence upon  God.  And  all  this  limited  and  ex- 
panded and  correlated  his  other  qualities  to  the  de- 
velopment and  upbuilding  of  a  great  and  uncom- 
mon character  which  safely  directed  the  American 
republic  through  the  greatest  crisis  in  its  history, 
and  perhaps  through  the  greatest  crisis  of  free 
government  in  the  world. 


CONCLUSION. 

Walking  in  the  busy  streets  of  the  city  of  At- 
lanta, not  long  since,  I  came  upon  a  fine  statue  of 
Henry  W.  Grady.  Beneath  the  bronze  figure  of 
the  young  orator,  whose  early  death  has  been  so 
widely  regretted,  was  the  legend: 

"He  died  while  literally  loving  a  nation  into  peace." 
Even  more  suggestive  than  his  cheering  words  was 
the  act  of  the  southern  masses  which  placed  this 
monument  in  their  busiest  thoroughfare,  a  witness 
of  their  satisfaction  at  the  sentiments  which  had 
distinguished  him.  No  traveler  in  the  south  can 
doubt  that  there  is  a  "New  South."  The  indus- 
tries are  growing  and  the  schools  are  multiplying. 
There  is  a  healthier  sentiment  upon  sociological 
and  economic  questions,  because  the  slave  system 
is  no  longer  there  to  throttle  it.  In  spite  of  lynch- 
ings  for  heinous  crimes,  and  of  course  they  are  to 
be  regretted;  in  spite  of  provocations,  and  surely 
they  are  innumerable:  there  is  a  kindlier,  more 
rational  feeling  toward  the  colored  race.  As  Mr. 
Booker  Washington  puts  it,  the  negro  in  the 
south  is  to  work  out  his  own  destiny,  with  the  help 
of  free  citizenship  under  free  institutions.  The 
gratifying  fact  is  apparent,  that  he  is  to  be  given 
a  chance,  and  that  he  is  seizing  it:  feebly,  it  is 
true,  but  surely  he  is  seizing  it.  The  south  has  a 
new  feeling  towards  the  north.  As  we  understand 
each  other  better,  we  love  each  other  more.  The 
roads  are  being  broken  out.  Beaten  paths  are  be- 
ing made.  Commercial  intercourse  has  commenced 
and  fraternal  regard  is  growing.  The  Ohio  river 
no  longer  separates  two  opposing  peoples  who 
merely  sustain  diplomatic  relations  with  each 
other:  there  is  a  chemical  affinity  in  progress;  we 
are  amalgamating.  The  bitterness  of  a  century  of 


controversy  is  well  nigh  gone.  The  wounds  torn 
bj  the  rough  hoof  of  war  have  almost  healed.  The 
soldiers  of  the  two  armies,  and  the  young  men  and 
women  of  the  new  generation,  who  '-look  forward 
and  not  back."  have  attained  this  magnificent  re- 
sult. The  union  is  stronger,  safer,  because  it 
stood  the  shock  of  battle  The  people  are  more 
homogeneous  because  more  free.  A  hundred  mil- 
lions of1  united,  industrious,  frugal,  educated. 
Christian  people,  under  a  free  flag,  stand  in  a  place 
so  high  among  the  nations  that  they  can  command 
anything  that  is  right  by  the  force  and  dignity  of 
their  position,  and  without  resort  to  war. 

The  work  of  Abraham  Lincoln  is  accomplished. 
His  qualities  point  a  moral.  His  career  is  an  in- 
spiration to  us. 

"Our  fathers'  God!  from  out  whose  hand 

The  centuries  fall  like  grains  of  sand: 

We  meet  to-day,  united,  free. 

A  nd  loyal  to  our  land  and  Thee. 

To  thank  Thee  for  the  era  done. 

And  trust  Thee  for  the  opening  one." 


UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS-URBANA 

fHlKo'lsUFEANOTHE'SES.DENCYOF 


30112031818526 


